Welcome to the Education Blog of Carla Ranger - Former District 6 Trustee - Dallas Independent School District - DISD

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Resolution Concerning High Stakes, Standardized Testing of Texas Public School Students

Trustee Ranger,

My name is ... and I live at ... in Dallas .... I
am also a former Dallas ISD teacher, a Dallas ISD taxpayer and a proud
father of a ... daughter that may
one day attend a Dallas ISD school. It is in my capacity as a taxpayer
and prospective Dallas ISD parent than I am writing today. The views I
express are my own ...

I am very concerned at the Board’s failure to move forward with
the Resolution Concerning High Stakes, Standardized Testing of Texas
Public School Students. This resolution is supported by the Texas
Association of School Administrators and the Texas
Association of School Boards. TEA Commissioner Robert Scott has
publically criticized our over reliance on standardized tests. To date,
over 280 Texas School Districts have adopted this resolution.

As a former classroom teacher, I personally saw the damage that
the overemphasis on standardized testing has wrought. Over the course of
11 years in Dallas ISD I taught numerous students that struggled when
faced with any kind of written test yet could
provide excellent answers to an oral exam, create incredible artistic or
multimedia projects explaining a concept or even write a poem or skit
relating the information. Creativity and collaboration are essential
skills for students yet no standardized test
can measure them. As Albert Einstein said, “Not everything that can be
counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Every
day that we spent testing or preparing for a test was a lost
instructional day. This was particularly true in Advanced
Placement classes. Instead of analyzing primary sources or crafting
historical arguments, my students were forced to drill for a minimal
skills test.

Across the United States public school systems that have
emphasized standardized test preparation in an effort to boost state and
federal school ratings have seen an exodus of children with
college-educated parents. This is no accident. College educated
parents know that a real education consists of far more than bubbling
answers on a Scantron sheet. Reducing education to nothing more than
exam results is deceitful and shameful. Subjecting low and moderate
income students to endless days of test prep while
claiming to educate them is an injustice.

My wife and I face many challenges in raising our daughter. Not
the least of these is what school to send her to. I am a strong
proponent of public education and earnestly desire that she attend
public schools. Strong public schools are a hallmark of
a democratic society and my wife and I value the diversity and excellent
education Dallas ISD schools offer. However, if Dallas ISD continues to
emphasize standardized testing to the exclusion of creativity and
collaboration, we will have no choice but to explore
alternative educational options.

In closing, I strongly urge you to consider and adopt the
Resolution Concerning High Stakes, Standardized Testing of Texas Public
School Students. There is a growing backlash against the overuse of
standardized testing in Texas and across the United
States. This is a movement led by parents that will only get stronger.
As an elected School Board Trustee you would be foolish to ignore it.
Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."